Kale and Potato Bowl

Have you ever had to marinate something, like tofu or tempeh?

A lot of times after something is marinated, it comes out of the marinade onto a baking sheet and baked in the oven.

The rest of the marinade just gets tossed!!!!

If your anything like me you hate wasting that marinade!  It can be used for so many other things.

Just like this Kale and Potato Bowl!

Ingredients:

• any kind of leftover marinade you have
• 3-4 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 8 oz bella mushrooms, sliced
• 4-6 cups of kale
• black beans
• baked potatoes

Directions:

1. In a large pot, add about 1/4 cup of your marinade.  Add the garlic and onion and sauté for about 4 minutes.
2. Add the mushrooms and the rest of the marinade and cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until the mushrooms have absorbed most of the liquid.
3. Add the kale, cover the pot, and cook for an additional 5 minutes.*
4. Pour this into a bowl with some black beans and a chopped baked potato.

* You will have some liquid leftover.  I added this to my bowl so it was like a really thick stew, but if you don’t want the liquid just use a slotted spoon to leave the liquid in the pot.

Strawberry Banana Breakfast Smoothie

This smoothie is great for breakfast! It’s got your greens, fruits, oatmeal, and yogurt!

Ingredients:

• 1 banana
• 7 strawberries
• 1/4 cup rolled oats
• 6 oz plain yogurt
• handful of spinach
• 1-1.5 cups water

Directions: Combine all ingredients in a blender until smooth.

I recommend using frozen fruits for this recipe to make it colder and creamer, though fresh fruit works just as well. Add as much water (or non-dairy milk) as you would like for a thicker or thinner smoothie.  The amount of liquid may also depend on if you use frozen or fresh fruit.

Hummingbird Muffins

I’d heard of hummingbird cake and cupcakes before and they sounded really good!  I love the combination of bananas and pineapple!  Unfortunately, the typical recipe calls for a ton of sugar!  I adapted the recipe for my banana bread muffins to create my healthier vegan, gluten free, and SOS free Hummingbird Muffins!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup rolled oats (GF if desired)
• 1 cup millet
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 ripe bananas
• 1 8oz can crushed pineapple
• 8 dates
• 4 tbsp almond milk (or other non-dairy milk)
• 1/2 cup pecans, chopped (optional)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. In a high-speed blender, combine oats and millet and blend until a flour forms.
3. Pour into a large bowl, add the baking powder, and stir together.
4. In the high-speed blender, add the bananas, pineapple, dates, and almond milk.  Blend until everything is well combined.
5. Pour into the bowl with the flour and mix until everything is combined.
6. Stir in the chopped pecans.
7. Pour into prepared muffin pan and bake for 30 minutes.

This recipe would be really good as a cupcake too, with a cashew cream icing on top!  Next time I make these muffins, I will add the icing and post the recipe for the cashew cream icing!

I was able to make 16 muffins with this recipe.

Hope you enjoy these as much as I did!

Sundae Smoothie

When I took my first sip of this smoothie, it tasted like I was drinking a Sundae!  The flavors all merged together so well.  This would be a great dessert smoothie, or you can do what I did and have this smoothie for breakfast!  What a great delicious and healthy way to start the day!

This recipe was adapted from here:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup almond milk
• 1 frozen banana
• 4-5 strawberries
• handful of spinach
• 1 tablespoon almond butter
• 1-2 tablespoons unsweetened coconut flakes
• 1 tsp carob powder (or cocoa powder)

Directions: Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth!

The original recipe did not call for greens, but of course I had to throw some in since you can’t taste it and I wanted to add some veggie to it since I was having this sweet smoothie for breakfast.  If you do add the spinach, the color of the smoothie isn’t as appealing but who cares what it looks like as long as it tastes amazing, right?

Chickpea and Cabbage Soup

I had 1/2 a head of cabbage so I googled some ideas and came across this incredibly delicious soup!  The best part was I had all the ingredients to make it except the optional pine nuts and it looked super simple to make!

This recipe was adapted from here:

Ingredients:

• 1 onion, chopped
• 2 medium carrot, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 6 cups vegetable broth
• 1/2 head cabbage, chopped
• 1 15 oz can diced tomatoes
• 1 16 oz can chickpeas
• pepper, to taste
• 1/3 cup fresh basil
• optional: pine nuts

Directions:

1. Heat a large skillet, add 2 tablespoons of water, and sauté the onion for about 3 minutes.
2. Add the carrots and garlic and cook for about 2 minutes.
3. Add all remaining ingredients, except basil and pine nuts.
4. Reduce heat and allow to simmer, covered, for about 25 minutes.
5. Stir in basil and pine nuts.

Not only is this recipe great for St. Patrick’s Day with the cabbage, but it is a great soup to enjoy on a cooler day now since we are SO close to spring and will soon be craving salads, smoothies, and fresh fruit! Not like I don’t crave that stuff now, but in the summer you’re more likely to eat those foods than you are to eat soups.

Chocolate Sweet Potato Smoothie

I’ve been in the mood to add a sweet potato to my smoothie for a while.  I know it may sound odd, but the sweet potato gives it a creamy texture.  Plus, it really boosts the amount of vitamin A!  I already have a smoothie recipe that uses sweet potato and I almost made it until I came across this recipe.  It includes chocolate!  Enough said.  Enjoy this smoothie for breakfast or as a post-workout shake!

This recipe was adapted from here:

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup sweet potato (about 1 small)
• 1 frozen banana
• 2 medjool dates
• 1 cup unsweetened almond milk (or water)
• 1 tbsp almond butter
• 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• Optional: 1 scoop protein powder

Directions: Combine all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth!

I recommend baking the sweet potato ahead of time and allowing it to cool before making this smoothie.  I made my sweet potato the night before and allowed it to get cold in the fridge.  However, if you don’t have time for that you can always just allow it to cool on the counter after baking and possibly add some ice if you need your smoothie colder.

This recipe makes quite a thick smoothie! I actually ate it with a spoon 🙂

Brownie Cake Oatmeal Bake

This oatmeal bake seriously tastes like cake!  That’s because this oatmeal bake doesn’t just have oats in the recipe, but flour.  This oatmeal bake is so sweet, you could even eat it for dessert!  I made this recipe SOS free (no salt, oil, or sugar) so that it could be a healthy, but tasty, way to start your day!

This recipe is adapted from here:

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup rolled oats
• 2 tbsp flour (I used buckwheat, but any kind will work)
• 1 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 cup almond milk
• 1 tsp almond butter
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 sliced banana

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. Mix together oats, flour, cocoa powder, and baking powder.
3. Stir in almond milk, almond butter, and vanilla.
4. Gently fold in the sliced banana.
5. Pour into a ramekin and bake for 15-20 minutes.
6. Enjoy!

If you want this to be sweeter, you can add 1/2 tbsp maple syrup, but I think the banana makes it sweet enough, especially for breakfast.

Before eating this, I poured a little more almond milk on top which was also very tasty.  If you want, you can even add some walnuts into the batter for more of a crunch!

This was such a treat!  I have been having smoothies and banana ice cream SO much for breakfast lately, that this oatmeal bake was a nice change up.  Especially for a Monday morning when school was cancelled and I had the time to enjoy this while catching up on some TV shows.

Green Creamsicle Smoothie

I love the taste of oranges and bananas together!  It’s just like an orange creamsicle!  But I add spinach to mine for extra health benefits, plus I love eating naturally green colored foods!  So since I pretty much made a green orange creamsicle smoothie, I decided to call this the Green Creamsicle smoothie!  Definitely give it a try!

Ingredients:

• 2 frozen bananas
• 2 clementines (or 1 orange)
• large handful of your favorite greens (spinach, kale, chard, etc.)
• 1 cup water or non-dairy milk
• 1 scoop plant based vanilla protein powder OR try 1/2 tsp vanilla extract and 2 dates

Directions:

Blend all ingredients into a high speed blender, pour into a large glass, and enjoy!

I’ve had this for breakfast two days in a row now!  I just can’t get enough 🙂

Chocolate Chia Pudding

I love making chocolate pudding with avocado.  I know some people are skeptical thinking there is no way an avocado can taste good with something sweet like chocolate.  Well, it can!  Avocado has such a creamy texture and takes on the chocolate flavor.  However, I understand some people may still be hesitant.  I think you should definitely give it a try before knocking it though.

I have a recipe today though, in case your still not quite sure about the avocado chocolate pudding, but still want a healthy chocolate treat.  I say healthy because this pudding is made with zero additional sugars, only the natural ones from the dates!

This recipe was adapted from here:

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup almond milk (you can also use water)
• 2 tbsp chia seeds
• 2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 4 Medjool dates, pitted
• 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

1. Combine all ingredients in a high-powered blender* and blend until smooth and creamy.
2. Pour into two serving dishes and fridge overnight, or at least 30 minutes before eating.

*A high-powered blender will give you the creamiest texture and make sure to grind those chia seeds completely.  However, any blender will combine all ingredients but you may have more of a tapioca texture with the chia seeds.

I refrigerated my pudding overnight and it was amazing!  I haven’t had a real pudding in YEARS! But this recipe is the closest I have ever come to having that sweet chocolate treat!

One day I’m also going to try using this as a chocolate sauce to swirl into banana ice cream!

Banana Bread Muffins

This recipe was originally for banana bread.  But I found that the muffins baked better than a whole loaf of bread and it made it easier to make a grab-and-go snack that was already portioned.  I knew I would love this recipe just looking at the ingredients.  It has 5 bananas!  These banana bread muffins is made with only whole foods and is SOS free, meaning it has no added sugar, oil, or salt.  These banana bread muffins can be enjoyed at any time of the day!

This recipe was adapted from here:

Ingredients:

• 1 cup millet
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 5 bananas!
• 1/2 cup date paste (or 10 dates)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce (or 1 small apple)
• Optional: 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350F
2. Combine millet and oats in a high-speed blender and process into a flour.  Transfer to a large mixing bowl.
3. Add baking powder and stir.
4. Blend together bananas, date paste or dates, and applesauce until well combined.
5. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir.  Add walnuts, if desired, and stir.
6. Pour into muffin pan (I use a silicon pan) and bake for 20-22 minutes.
7. Allow to cool and enjoy!

This recipe is amazing for so many different reasons:

1. If you already have date paste on hand, this is such an easy recipe to make, since all you have to do is blend the ingredients together! If not, you can just use 10 pitted dates which is even simpler.
2. Millet is a grain that is not expensive at all!
3. Only whole foods are used, so it is a healthy treat!